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 theory, are sufficient to justify punishment: the benefit of the offender himself, and the protection of others.’

And (p. 597), ‘If indeed punishment is inflicted for any other reason than in order to operate on the will; if its purpose be other than that of improving the culprit himself, or securing the just rights of others against unjust violation [‘justice,’ the reader must remember, may be for him, and Mr Mill, two different things], then, I admit, the case is totally altered. If any one thinks that there is justice in the infliction of purposeless suffering; that there is a natural affinity between the two ideas of guilt and punishment, which makes it intrinsically fitting that wherever there has been guilt, pain should be inflicted by way of retribution [the reader will not forget that for him, beside that of justice, there may also be other spheres, and possibly higher: what is merely just need not be intrinsically fitting]; I acknowledge that I can find no argument to justify punishment inflicted on this principle. As a legitimate satisfaction to feelings of indignation and resentment which are on the whole salutary and worthy of cultivation [the figments are not ‘horrid’ to Mr Mill; he seems willing even to encourage them], I can in certain cases admit it; but here it is still a means to an end. The merely retributive [‘merely’ is misleading] view of punishment derives no justification from the doctrine I support.’

Punishment to Mr Mill is ‘medicine’; and, turn himself aside as he might from the issue (p. 593-4), he could not avoid the conclusion forced on him by the ‘Inquirer,’ that if rewards carried with them the benefits of punishment, then I should deserve rewards, when, and because, I am wicked.

Now against this theory of punishment I have nothing here to say. The great and ancient names, which in punishment saw nothing but a means to the good of the State or the individual, demand that we treat that view with respect; and hence I will not